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New online interactive tools for animal breeding education
Professionals, teachers and students now have access to two new interactive online tools designed to improve understanding of basic concepts in animal breeding.
Developed by teachers from Wageningen University, these tools offer an engaging and accessible approach to learning about selection index theory and estimating breeding values.
Wageningen University is internationally well-known for its strong education in animal breeding. The basic principles of animal breeding are taught in the Bachelor course Animal Breeding and Genetics (ABG). These principles include aspects of population-, quantitative-, and molecular genetics, as well as breeding programs. Although the theory behind these principles involves a lot of statistics and matrix algebra, the course very much focuses on practical applications. Students work on several assignments where they learn how to apply theory to - somewhat simplified - examples.
Two important animal breeding principles
There are two important principles in animal breeding that are crucial for students to understand. The first one is breeding value estimation, which is the process of estimating the genetic merit of animals based on measurements on the individuals themselves or their relatives. The second principle is selection index theory, which allows breeders to combine multiple sources of information to obtain the most accurate breeding value estimates possible. These techniques are crucial, because breeding values are the selection criterium in almost all breeding programs.
Online interactive tools
When teaching the basic principles of animal breeding, we want students to focus on the outcomes and interpreting them. We therefore developed interactive tools for animal breeding education. These tools perform basic calculations for breeding value estimation and development of a selection index, based on input by the user. This allows students to quickly test and compare a large number of scenarios, which will be useful for deepening their understanding of the underlying concepts.
The tools are freely available via the website thesis-lab.com, and can therefore be used by animal breeding professionals, teachers, and students alike.